5 Tech tips for traveling to Australia [S]

Although for many of us Australia is on the other side of the World, it is certainly a place where I would go. Sydney, cangaroos and dingos need to be seen live. If you travel to that country I am sure you have already packed all things well, but I have also my own technical tips to better manage such a trip.

Before anything else, do not forget to book a hotel room from AccorHotels.com. These guys have over 4000 hotels in 90 countries and 400 hotels in 18 countries across Asia – Pacific, so you’ll be well taken care of. Only in Sydney they have three dozen such hotels. A nice selection too.

Now, let’s get down to the tech tips I was talking about: online visa wizard, Australian sim cards, universal charges, security wallet and apps.

Check online what kind of Visa you would require to travel to Australia

Not many countries have an online visa wizard, a website where you input your age, the country of origin, reason for traveling and then it will show the available visas for your specific situation. Nice and clean.

Since I am located in EU I can even stay for 6 months. That page offers even methods of payment for some of the countries so it is definitively a place to start checking before even booking a room at any hotel in Australia.

Be smart and use a Lebara Australian SIM

My mother works in Spain and she often uses Lebara sim cards. They are cheap and offer very good prices on international calls. The cheapest prices are offers if you phone form mobiel to fixed lines, but it is still a great deal.

The best things about these Australian sim cards? You can order them online and then they will ship them to your home. No need to stay in the line in Australia or ask anyone else to help with this. The internet is here to help.

These sim cards will work with any unlocked phone (I use only unlocked phones because I like the freedom).

It is best to look at chargers that have an USB port too. How else do you think you’ll get some juice in those smartphones? Alternatives are to use a mechanical smartphone charger or, for the geeky type, you can even create your own charger out of 2 AA bateries.

A charger that will be surely our favorite will be Gravity Light. They received the funding on Indiegogo and they will start working on the gravity chargers, devices that use gravity to generate electricity. Genius! Can’t wait to se those on the market.

Have an biometric passport? Beware of data thieves!

The biometric passport has an integrated chip with a few data points in it. It has your image, fingerprint, date or birth and some other information about you. They are very great to fast border processing: you put the passport near the reading device and then you look intot he camera. Automated systems recognize you and then you can go on your oan way.

Since these passports use NFC, near field communication, and some of the info on them are not protected as we’d expect, some clever guys might stand next to you and steal the info form it.

In these situations you need to use RFID Shielding Security Wallet. It will block the radiation from the NFC module to reach out of the wallet and, thus, you will be protected.

Best is to be informed than to be sorry:

Use travel and weather apps tailored for Australia

I have my Android phone full of apps. I test them and delete any of those that cannot help me in the way I want. So, if you have an Android device it is a good idea to check the travel and weather apps.

Surely, there are many more issues to take care of, but I like to prepare myself using these 5 tips firstly, and then check more. A good question would be: does anyone in Australia take payment in bitcoins? Have fun!